Beijing Winter Olympics.Photo: Wang Xin/VCG via Getty
After four years, the wait is almost over!
Curious to know how many sports are played during the Winter Olympics? Wondering how manygold medalistsare returning to represent Team USA? Thanks to the USOC who provided the calculations, we have those answers.
Keep scrolling for fun facts about the quadrennial, multi-sport competition ahead of theOpening Ceremonyon Friday, Feb. 4 on NBC.
1 Host City
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This is the first year the Winter Olympics aretaking place in China, and the third consecutive Olympics held in East Asia, following the2018 Winter Olympicsin PyeongChang,South Korea, and the2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Beijing will also make history as the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics!
Roy Rochlin/Getty; Marianna Massey/Getty
Out of four seasons, the Olympics only take place during the summer and winter, and this year there are two athletesrepresenting Team USAwith those seasons in their names:Summer Britcherand Winter Vinecki.
4 Five-Time Olympians on Team USA Returning
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Out of 92 Olympians returning to Team USA, four of those athletes will be competing in theirfifth Winter Olympics.
6 Individual Gold Medalists Returning to Team USA
Chloe Kim.Tom Pennington/Getty Images
While39 returning athleteshave received medals for Team USA, including24 who have won gold, there are six athletes whoindividually won goldat the 2018 Olympics who will return this year. This marks the first time since 1968 that every individual gold medalist from the previous Olympics will return for a consecutive year.
Those athletes include halfpipe skierDavid Wise, alpine skierMikaela Shiffrin,and snowboardersJamie Anderson,Chloe Kim,Red Gerard,andWhite.
7 Total Winter Sports
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The Beijing Olympics will feature 109 events across 15 disciplines in seven winter sports. The sports include biathlon, bobsledding (bobsleigh and skeleton), curling, ice hockey, luge, skating (figure skating, short track speed skating, andspeed skating), and skiing (alpine, cross-country, freestyle, nordic combined, ski jumping, and snowboarding).
In addition,seven new Winter Olympic eventshave been added: women’s monobob, freestyle skiing big air (men’s and women’s), mixed team events in short track speed skating team relay, ski jumping, freestyle skiing aerials, and snowboard cross.
16 Years Old Is the Youngest Team USA Athlete
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At age 16,Alysa Liuis theyoungest female athleterepresenting Team USA and will compete in figure skating. She also made history as the youngest skater to land a triple Axel in an international competition at age 12 and was the third U.S. woman to do so.
At age 17, Jordan Stolz is the youngest male athlete representing Team USA and will compete in speedskating. Training in the sport since he was five years old, Stolz is slated to be a medal threat in the 1000m.
31 States Represented on Team USA
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Park City and Salt Lake City in Utah are the cities with the most qualifying athletes, with nine and six total, respectively.
40 Years Old Is the Oldest Team USA Athlete
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91 Competing Countries
Jamaica’s bobsled team.Team Jamaica Twitter
Norwayholds the recordfor the country with the most medals in Winter Olympic history, totaling 368 overall, with132 gold, 125 silver, and 111 bronze.
109 Female Athletes Representing Team USA
Team USA Hockey.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty
225 Total Team USA Athletes
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“My hope is that when people see my story, it isn’t focused on me and saying, ‘Oh, Timothy is the first out non-binary person to achieve this level of success in sport.’ My hope is that the narrative shifts more to, ‘Queer people can be open and successful in sports.’ We’ve always been here, we’ve always been a part of sports. We just haven’t always been able to be open,“they saidduring a press conference.
2,800+ Hours of Coverage
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NBCUniversal will present a Winter Olympic record of over 2,800 hours of coverage across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, NBCOlympics.com, and the NBC Sports app.
Similar to its coverage of the2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, NBCU will provide unprecedented full-day coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday. Feb. 4, on NBC and Peacock.
source: people.com
